Nikki Kalani Apana is an MPP candidate at Harvard Kennedy School, where she will focus on health policy addressing Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) disparities, addiction medicine, and harm reduction. She earned her BA in Human Biology with Honors and Distinction from Stanford University. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received the Stanford Award of Excellence for scholarly achievement and the Kenworthy Award for Student Innovation in Public Service. Nikki is also pursuing her MD at UCSF in the PRIME-US program, where she is training to become a primary care physician dedicated to advancing health equity in urban underserved communities through both clinical care and policy change.

Nikki’s work centers on uplifting marginalized communities through research, advocacy, and education. As an undergraduate, she led a qualitative study on implicit bias in patient care and co-developed a training curriculum for healthcare providers that has reached over 500 clinicians. She received the Oral Communication Excellence Award for her honors thesis presentation on this work. She later joined the board of Indigenous Peoples’ Day Philly, working to expand Indigenous education across the city, especially in public schools.

In medical school, Nikki has focused her research on NHPI health disparities, highlighting systemic gaps in data, funding, and care affecting these communities. Her publications in JAMA have brought national attention to the long-term health impacts of the Lāhainā wildfires, overdose trends among Native Hawaiians, and mental health challenges in queer Indigenous communities. She has influenced policy discussions through her role on the SAMHSA ‘Ohana Center of Excellence Steering Committee. Nikki also leads addiction research on betel nut use among youth globally, working to develop targeted policies to reduce exposure and cancer risk. She hopes to use the MPP to create compassionate, data-driven health policies that advance equity both nationally and internationally.

Born and raised in the Bay Area, Nikki’s roots trace to Wailuku, Maui, where her Native Hawaiian family’s experiences first sparked her passion for health equity. She honors her heritage through hula, and enjoys running, reading, and listening to science and policy podcasts in her free time.